Grind My Gears – This Week is Math

Like any other extreme music genre, grind has a bevy of prefixes that nine times out of ten give the listener an expectation of roughly what a band will sound like. I try not to rely too much on them because I usually find the one band out of ten that doesn’t quite fit into any one in particular. I get it though, it’s an easy way of lumping acts together for people newer to the style of music. Loosely speaking, our prefix for Grind My Gears this week is math. I’ve made a sort of “dream lineup” with fresh grind from either side of the continent but it still needs a headliner. Comment after about who you think would be ideal to headline a bill with these two bands and I’ll tell you exactly why you’re right/wrong after!

Open Your Dickholes And Get Ready For A Devastating Sounding

I did a little freak out when I first heard Sounding (and not because of me searching for them in the wrong browser tab). The same kind of freak out I suffered when I heard aminals or Sectioned for the first time. Different sounding bands but both fast and firm favourites of mine, also both pretty “underground” even for the actual underground it self. When a newcomer arrives with a professionally devastating debut release in tow, it’s worth getting a tad overexcited I’d say. These noisy lads from Louisiana bring all of the Myspace grind chill in a splintering, sample heavy brick belong to The Great Wall Of Noise and it’s fucking exciting.

This hits very specific buttons for a grind fan like myself. Within it’s brief and brilliant run time, Trepanation twists and turns between incomprehensible blasts at breakneck speed and jarring, downshifted groove. “Jesus Junkies” is the pick of the slow jams with an ascending bass riff that holds together a track that, given material form in the world of Hollywood, would be Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet. Directed by David Lynch. The short(er) tracks all fit into this puzzle with thrills and spills comparable to peers See You Next Tuesday and The Sawtooth Grin, but Sounding come into their own outside of the ludicrous track titles and spazzy displays of technicality. They bring the atmosphere and malicious nature of darker genres outwith grind too, “Holy Spunk” and “Third Eye Money Shot” treading in dark hardcore waters. None of their particular charm is lost when switching the pace up, throwing a song in a new direction, even when throwing in a brief hero worship here and there.

Sounding never stick to the same kind of grind for more than, well, five seconds but this the most free flowing fourteen minutes of grind I’ve heard in forever. If the band had released this as a single track I’d have been just as stoked. Trepanation feels like a story being told through a machine that turns fairy tales into Japanese ultra-violence cinema; structuring allows this material to bleed from track to track completely naturally. The only respite a resounding hiss in the ears when it finishes, right before hitting play again.

There’s no new music yet, this is just a friendly reminder that Antigama have new music out soon. So pay attention. If not already aware, Antigama play the kind of grind that you would pick if someone asked you what you listen to; if you absolutely, 100% wanted out of that conversation as quick as possible. I’m gearing up for the release of new EP Depressant but I’m nervously anxious about what it’ll sound like

The Polish particle destroyers last stormed the Heavy Blog shores on the release of The Insolent; a controlled explosion of a record that played on earlier experiments with traditional grind and industrial/noise. The 2015 release went under the radar for the most part, but it’s one that stuck with me. The blend of harsh grind and dissonance would definitely sound like white noise to any one unaware of a good time, but that’s what makes grind grind, init? Probably stretching a bit with the math tag for these guys actually, but Mathcore Index shared this record again recently so it counts.

More recently, the band have gone full Doctor Frankenstein with their sound. This is the part that makes me cautious about my expectations for Depressant. From a recent split, “Brothers” sounds like the seed that sired Ministry and Nine Inch Nails with all of the dark industrial sounds and guitar screeching that exist within their toolbox. It’s a vicious performance too, barking words of terror and decay out much like in Antigama’s familiar grind setting. Fitting for either occasion, the hell-breaking-loose sounds that come from human and machine make the prospect of new music from this band a salivating time for me. This just begs the question. Which Antigama are we going to get on this new release? Grind is also great when it throws a curveball, so I’m gonna be pleased either way to be honest. Party on Wayne.